Broken
by IAmWeWere
Summary: Draco slammed me against the wall and I momentarily forgot to breathe. “Wow, the sex must be great.” My sister smiled, and I just about sunk to the floor and died.
1. I'm Leaving

I sit here by the window tears streaming down my face. I look down at the engagement ring unconciously twisting it around my finger. It's a beautiful ring, silver-gold with a small diamond in the middle. It's beautiful because it's simlpe. I can hear my heart beating in my ears and and my head is pounding. I don't want to feel the way I do, but it's too late. I don't believe you really care, if you do I'm sorry. I feel like you loved the image of me more then you actually loved me. I walk back to my room, the tears still falling. You're still at work and for that I am glad. I see them, my bags, all of my things ready to go. I start bringing them down the stairs to the foyer. They are all sitting there, waiting to be moved. I sit in the living room waiting for you to get home and finally I hear the click of your keys in the door and the turning of the lock. I begin to twist my ring again and I start to cry even harder. You hear me and walk into the living room. By now you have seen the bags, by now you have probably figured out that I'm leaving.

"What's going on Hermione?" He asks, his blue eyes penetrating my own brown ones.

"I'm leaving Ron." I can barely manage.

"What?" He whispers. I can see the hurt in your eyes, I can see disbelief shaping your features.

"I can't do this anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"I am talking about us, this life we have together." I say the tears coming less in less and my voice finally getting firmer. "I've tried to convince myself that eventually I would come to love you as real lovers do but I just couldn't. After the war when you asked me to be with you, to live with you, I said yes. I didn't want to hurt you. Belive me I didn't. But either way I would have. Keeping this from you was the worse thing I have done. Ron I don't love you in the way I should. I love you more then the world it's self but as my brother. It has been breaking me for a while and, really, I couldn't take it anymore. This giant secret that I wanted so badly to set free and finally I have." I slowly remove the ring from my finger and place it in his hand.

I pull myself off the couch and place my lips one last time on his cheek. I walk to the foyer and grab all of my bags and put them in the trunk of my car. I have to get out of here. I get in my car and put the music on so loud I can't hear myself think. I am driving to Ginny's and I feel myself breaking inside even more. I reach the driveway and race up the stairs to the front door. I knock on the door and she opens the door smiling but she can tell something is wrong. My eyes are red from crying and I'm shaking. I sit down on the couch and the phone rings. She comes in after she hangs up. I can feel it in my gut that it was Ron, that he told her everything making me out to be the bad person. I feel bile rising in the back of my throat but I just manage to swallow it down as she enters the room

"Get out." Ice laced through her voice.

I feel my throat constricting and the tears falling, the god damn tears. I feel her words piercing my heart, her tone piercing my ears.

"What?" We have been mates since Ron and I had been mates.

"I don't want to be mates with a liar and a bitch." Ginny said in a dead tone.

I ran from the room and into my car and drove to the park. The sky opened up and it poured. It didn't matter. I leaned against a tree and let the tears fall. I can't believe I lost to of my best friends in less then an hour. I pull my knees to my chest as sobs rack my body. When I have cried as many tears as I can I stand up completely soaked and get in my car. I use a quick drying spell and reach for my cellphone. The operator transfers me to the Edinburgh Waverly Train Station. I am catching the next train back to England. I stare blankly at the road ahead of me.

I grab the only carry on I brought, my purse, and board the Train. I am glad to finally be leaving Scotland. I never liked it much. It will be pulling into King's Cross Station in three hours. I quickly fall asleep, mentally drained. When I wake up I still have an hour and a half before I come into the station. I sit there just staring out of the window wondering how my life had changed so dramrically with in five hours. The original plan was to stay with Ginny, we'd always been mates. I never expected to leave Scotland, my life, my job.

I grab my cellphone and beg for a signal. I frantically start dialing the number of my other best mate, Lavender Brown.

"Hello?" Says a deep raspy voice.

"Lav?"

"Yeah?"

"It's Herms." I say, relieved, into the speaker.

"Hey, what's going on?" She expects me to say Ron and I are still engaged, she expects me to tell her about what Ginny and I did today at the shop.

"I left." I tell her figuring I should just get to the point.

"What?" I can tell she's either confused or heard me wrong I am on a train.

"I left Ron, I left my job, I left Scotland." I say my tone more leveled then I felt.

"Wow." She exhales. "You're not marrying Ron?" She asks cautiously.

"No...I should have never said yes." I breathe. "Lav, I am coming into King's Cross in an hour...can I stay with you until I get my life put back together.

"Of course!" She practically screamed. "I'll fix you a room and come down to the station."

"Thanks, for being there." She has no idea what it means to me for her to actually be there.

"Always, Herms." and we hang up.

I step out of the train and breathe the fresh air in and as I exhale I feel as though I'm breathing out the bad and finally bringing in the good. I see Lavender standing, waiting to pick me up. I am happy to see her. She hasn't changed much since two weeks ago. She still has her blonde pixie cut hair, her soulful blue eyes, and her tanned skin. I had missed seeing her everyday. She pulls me into a tight hug. We don't say a word as we get in the car and for that I am thankful. When we pull up to her flat I smile. We apparate, my things in hand, and we land in the guest bedroom. It's been straightened nicely. A blue duvet cover and silver, sheer drapes. I love it.

We order in and sit on the couch.

"What happened Hermione?" Lavender asks the floor.

"I...Never loved him, Lav, not in that way." I whisper. "I couldn't go on living like that. I am only twenty and marrying someone I don't truly love with all my heart. I didn't want to have kids and end up fifteen years down the road with joint custody and a divorce.

"I'm so sorry." Lavender looked me in the eye and out of all the people in my life that had said sorry I instatnly believed her.

The next day, I decide to do something I had always wanted to do. I go in search of a store. I go all over Diagon Alley and finally I find this old shop and the owner sells it to me for a good price. The bookstore I always wanted. I immediatly put my magic to use and fix it up. I have it done by five and can't wait to open it tomorrow. When I get in Lavender is reading the paper and sipping tea.

"How's the search go?"

"I bought and I'm already to open tomorrow."

"Well I shall buy your first book." Lavender smiles. "What time do you open?"

"Nine." I had decided earlier.

A month passes and no one from Scotalnd has attempted to talk to me. I come home from work at ten and my phone starts to ring. I look down and my heart races, it's Ginny.

"Hello?" I say coldly.

"It's Ginny."

"Oh." It goes silent on the other end and for a moment I believe she has hung up on me.

"Where did you go?"

"Back to London." I say stiffly.

"Hermione, I am really really sorry." Ginny whispers. "I shouldn't have said the things I did."

"Well you did." I reply.

"I should have heard you out. I really am sorry."

"Sorry doesn't fix everything Gin." I say heatedly as a tear streaks down my face and ferociously wipe it away. No more tears will be shed over the Weasley family.

"I know. I want to see you. I miss you."

"You should have thought of that. You have no idea how much it hurt me to leave Ron. No doubt it hurt him just as much. Think how much worse it would have been for me to leave once we were married, once we had a child! I couldn't face that! I just couldn't!" I yell at her.

"I know. Please come back."

"I'm not coming back to Scotland. I have a home and a job and a life here in London again and I wish to keep it that way. You can visit me next weekend though. I'll pick you up at King's Cross when you need me too."

I hear her breathe a sigh of relief. We talk for a while and we hang up. I feel my life turning back to normal once again. I am doing well with my book store and I have Ginny and Lav. Lavender convinced me to go with a new look. We pull up to the salon and I can't believe I am actually doing this. I am dying my hair blonde. That's right blonde. I sit there for two hours and am not able to look in the mirror. They have to preform a spell wear it won't grow out with my hair and if I want to change it back then I just come back to the salon. I look at myself in the mirror and nearly have a heart attack. It doesn't look anything like me!

"Oh. My. God." I say touching my hair.

"OH MY GOD!" Lavender shrieks. " You look amazing!" I did. I don't want to sound like I'm concieted but I looked amazing.

I love my new blonde hair and it looks so natural like I have always been I blonde. Before I go to work the next morning I apply foundation, dark brown shimmering eye shadow, dark brown eye liner, light pink blush, and finally mauve gloss. I pull on a pair of bright blue skinny jeans, a brown turtle neck sweater, and my brown leather boots that are three inch heels. I tell Lavender I'm going to be at the store late because we got new inventory and apparate to the store.

It's nine o'clock and I am about to close when the bell rings informing me that a customer as entered.

"We close exactly at nine." I say not bothering to look up.

"Do you really?" The male voice asked.

I look up and Draco Malfoy is standing in front of me and he looks better then I have ever seen him before.


	2. Hermione, Hermione Granger

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

I am completely in shock and don't know how to react. I guess he can see it on my face. I quickly swallow it and try to figure out what exactly it is that he needs.

"Um…yeah…so what is it that you want?" I ask him.

"Well I wanted a book…but you look good as well." He said flashing me a faint worthy smile. I almost want to faint. Does he know who I am?

"Would you like to go for coffee tomorrow?" He asks me and it's obvious now he doesn't recognize me.

"Sure." I surprise myself.

"What are you doing tonight?" He asks mischief flashing through his cold, grey eyes.

"Inventory. New books came in this morning." I say glad that I have something to do. I'm not ready to go out with him just yet.

"I could help you…" He says flashing me another delicious grin in turn I find myself smiling.

"I wouldn't want to put you in such a position." I say staring into his eyes, challenging him to disagree with me.

"No worries, I've got nothing to do anyhow." He replies.

I sigh and let him through the small gate that separates the front desk and the costumers. We head to the back of the store where there are at least ten boxes waiting to be unpacked and shelved. I motion for him to grab a box and I do as well and then we head to the front of the store. I sit down and start to unpack the books and he is just standing there, staring at me.

"What?" I ask confused.

"I don't know what to do…" He says blushing. Gods he looks good when he blushes. It's not like we're still in school and it's not like I'm looking for someone to be with for the rest of my life. I just want to look.

"Oh…it's easy all you have to do is divide them by genre and then alphabetize them by the last name of the author." I explain smiling.

"Oh. Will you help me?" He asks me with a pout on his lips.

"Fine." I sigh, at this rate it will take us hours upon hours to shelve them.

I open both boxes and dump all of the books out on the floor. I explain to him that the genre of the books are written on the spine. Soon we have a rhythm going and the silence is starting to get to me.

"What made you want to open a book shop?" He asks.

"I have always loved books and since I moved back I decided to do what I've always wanted and open a book shop." I explain loving it as it passes my lips.

We work side by side and finally get the two boxes done. I decide that it's enough for one night. We shelve them and magically remove the useless boxes. I sigh. I glance at the clock and realize it's eleven thirty. I thought we had been here so much longer.

"I need coffee." I groan as I grab my coat.

"There is this place that has amazing coffee and is open this late." Draco yawns.

"Mmm that sounds yummy let's go." I say eager to get a caffeine boost.

We walk down the side walk in an awkward silence and the cold is so abrasive my eyes are watering. I wish we had apparated. Finally we make it to this _amazing _coffee shop. As far as I can tell it definitely smells amazing. It's warm as well. I sit down and pull my coat closer still searching for more warmth. Draco orders my caramel macchiato and whatever it is that he wanted. I thank god as soon as I can feel the warm liquid traveling through my body. He sits down in the seat across from me and gives me this weird look and for a second I'm freaked that he finally realized who I am and will spit in my face or something gross. It sucks because I like this Malfoy.

"You remind me of someone." He says and I instantly wonder who.

"Hmmm?" I say motioning for him to continue.

"I went to school with her. She was absolutely wonderful in every way. She was top in our class every year. She was beautiful. I was in love with her and maybe I still am. She moved to Scotland with her boyfriend two years ago, right after graduation and I never saw her again." He blushes deeply. "Sorry, I shouldn't have just dumped that on you…I…Sorry."

"It's okay." I say forcing a smile when all I want to do is throw up. I know that sounds a bit disgusting right now but I just found out that Draco Malfoy loves me and has all the way through school. What the hell? Okay I just need to breathe but my heart won't let me. I can feel it thumping so fast I feel as though it's going to beat out of my chest.

"I really don't know what came over me." He says as if to himself.

"Really it's alright. I understand. I once thought I loved someone but really I didn't. Well not in the right way." I say begging myself not to drop a tear. I'm remembering the day I left.

"Oh." He smiles briefly at me.

"Wow, we are definitely a depressing party." I say laughing a little.

"Yeah." He looks up from his coffee. "We still on for tomorrow?" He asks making sure I wasn't freaked out by his love confession.

"Of course." I whisper.

We go on talking for a while and it is then I realize that it's twelve thirty in the morning. Lavender is going to kill me. I look up at him and it's like a freaking Kodak moment. His hair is falling gently into his eyes and his mouth is curved into a beautiful sumptuous smile. I can help but stare. Finally I pull myself out of my revere and look at him, really look at him staring into his eyes. When I look into his eyes I see hurt, disappointment, happiness, and love.

"It's getting late I really should be heading back. I told my roommate that I'd be back by eleven she's gonna think I've died or something."

"You've got a roommate?" He says wiggling his eyebrows. I smack him in the arm playfully and get ready to apparate.

"Wait," He says and I turn back to face him. " I didn't catch your name."

"Hermione, Hermione Granger." I smile and then apparate not missing the look of complete and utter shock on his face.


	3. Oh How Lovely

Chapter 3 Oh How Lovely

When I appear in our living room with a crack I can see that I scared Lavender half to death. I laugh at the look on her face.

"Where have you been?" She asks taking on a motherly tone.

"Um…the coffee shop with Draco Malfoy." I say casually and start to head towards my room.

"Excuse me! Did I hear you wrong? Because I'm pretty sure you just said Draco Malfoy."

"I did…" I say smiling. I change my mind and head towards the kitchen. I need something to calm my stomach. It's been yelling at me since nine.

"Herms, are you ok? Did you hit your head on the way home?" Lavender says looking at me as if I were an insane woman.

"No. I didn't hit my head but I did find out quite a bit of interesting information." I say looking her straight in the eye a smirk of my own settling on my lips.

I turn to the fridge and begin working on a large sandwich. I pile turkey and cheese onto two slabs of French bread. I grab a cranberry juice and the chips and sit down on the couch next to Lav. This could be a while.

"Well…would you like to share?" Lavender says her face starting getting quite red.

"Sure. He didn't recognize me first of all. Then he told me…" I leave her hanging placing a chip in my mouth.

"OUT WITH IT ALREADY!" She screams.

"That he loved this girl back in school. This girl named Hermione Jane Granger." I say smiling barely able to contain it now. "He said that he never got tell her because she moved to Scotland with her boyfriend…"

"OH. MY. GOD!!!" Lavender screams her face completely formed into shock.

"Yeah!" I breathe. "He didn't even know who I was. Because I am now blonde." I sigh melodramatically.

"Wow." She shifts in her seat. "This is…Wow."

"I know! I know!" I start to pace. "What am I going to do?"

"Um isn't that obvious?" She looks at me as if I had to be the dumbest person alive.

"No!" I yell.

"Go out with him. He's gonna want to see you after he confessed his undying love to you." Lavender looks up at the ceiling. "Tomorrow we have lots of work to do but for now you may go to sleep I dismiss you." She says and I smack her upside the head.

"Ow! I was just saying!" Lavender rubs her head smiling as I laugh.

I lay here in my room thinking about what has happened in the passed twenty-four hours. My eyelids start to droop and eventually I find myself falling to sleep. I wake up and take a look at the clock and just about have a heart attack. It's noon and I have to meet him at the coffee shop at one thirty. This does not leave as much time to get ready as I would have liked. I can tell Lavender's up by the smell of her incense. She always burns that stuff when she meditates. Why? I'll never understand. I quickly jump into the shower and when I'm done pull on my bathrobe and go downstairs to consult with Lavender and have a vanilla steamer.

"What should I wear?" I ask relaxing into the taste of vanilla.

"Good question. Ok, I'll do your hair and make-up because I want to…and you should definitely wear those royal blue jeans you have. They make your butt look big." She smiled looking at me oh so innocently.

"Lav!" I say almost spitting vanilla everywhere.

"Hey! I say accentuate your assets." She said and continued her meditation. I could not talk to her for another twenty minutes because if I messed up her zone she would be mopey and hard to get along with all day.

I go upstairs and search high and low for my royal blues. Finally I find them and slide them on. I put on my burgundy v-neck sweater, a set of pearls, and my black three inch heeled boots over my straight legged jeans. I hear Lav coming up the stairs so I let my hair out of the towel and she begins working on curling my hair. When I got my hair dyed blonde I also got it permanently straightened. I can curl it with curlers but if I didn't decide to do curls, when it dried it would dry straight.

When she was done my hair looked like Reese Witherspoon's when she was blonde except longer. I really liked the flip. Next she did my eyes with a brown and gold shadow and my lips in a burgundy red to match my top. I had to admit, I looked amazing. I slung my black leather purse over my shoulder and apparated a half a block from the coffee shop we went to last night. I took a deep breath and marched in. I was right on time and from the looks of it so was he. He didn't see me until I sat down in front of him.

"Afternoon Malfoy." I smile brightly.

"Granger." He says avoiding looking me in the eyes.

"Were you surprised?" I ask trying to get him to say something. Anything.

"What?" He finally looks me directly in the eyes. I absolutely love his eyes. The swirling steel grey with ice blue. I try to remain focused but I start to lose myself. I snap out of it and then remember he had asked me to repeat myself.

"Were you surprised to figure out that I was actually Hermione?" I say this time with a little more explanation.

"Uh…Just a little. I knew you looked familiar some how but I couldn't place you." For a moment his expression turned hard with anger and then it softened.

"Yeah, Ron asked me to marry him and I said yes…but then I realized that I didn't want to get married to someone I didn't love. More or less someone I didn't love romantically." I say to him looking anywhere but his face. I find a plate nailed to the wall and focus on that.

"Wow. That must have killed him." Draco said looking at me.

"Why do you say that?" I ask looking at him with curiosity and amusement.

"Because when you left it definitely killed me."


	4. Heels Over Wall

Chapter 4 Heels Over Wall

I stare at him in shock but quickly recover. I still can't get over the fact the he's in love with me. It astonishes me beyond all reason. I did the only thing I could think to do at that moment. I lean forward and kiss him and it's like heaven. I forget that we're in public because at the moment I don't really give a damn. He pulls me up out of my chair and we break the kiss long enough to go outside and it's pouring rain. It's wonderful and we kiss again. I love kissing him. He's gentle and kind something I never found in him all the while I had known him.

"I've got to go Draco." I say breathing heavily.

"Say it again."

"What?" I ask him. I think he's gone crazy.

"My name." He smiles.

"Draco!" I say and kiss him again before apparating.

When I hit the couch in Lavender and I's apartment I sigh. I close my eyes and remember the kiss. I want to play it over and over in my mind. I want it to be there forever. I want to be able to remember that forever.

"What's up with you?" Lav says sitting down be side me. "You're soaking wet!"

"No really? I hadn't noticed." I rolled my eyes but the smile didn't leave my lips.

"Second of all why are you so happy…! OMG you had your date today!" She squealed and sat down beside me. "Oh I almost forgot, Adea called, she said to call her back as soon as you got home. By the way, who's Adea?"

"She's my older sister." I huffed. What did she want! I love her to death but sometimes she could be quite annoying. "Well I'll just have to tell you about my date later considering I have to talk to Adea." I smirked as Lavender pouted. I dialed Adea's number and waited as it rang.

"Hey." Adea calls through the phone.

"Hey, it's Hermione so what's up?"

"Um…I need to ask you a really big favor…" Her tone diminishes. I hope she wasn't asking for money because I no longer owned anymore muggle money.

"Alright then, spit it out."

"Can I come live with you. It would only be for a while. I can pay a third of the rent. I'm sure Ron would let me stay. He's a sweetheart. Please!" She pleaded. She had never asked me for anything. I sighed. Here goes the forty millionth retelling of Ron and I's story. When I finished she said oh.

"Lav says it's ok but only for a little while!" I breathed. "Oh, and happy twenty-fourth Adea." I smiled.

"Thanks. I'm at King's Cross Station, can you come get me?"

"Yeah I'll be there in a second. Literally." We hung up.

"Lav, I've gotta go get Adea. Be back in two minutes."

I put on the spell to where muggles couldn't see me apparate at all. With a pop I was beside Adea but she didn't notice until I cleared my throat because she didn't have the ability to hear the pop. I keep wondering how she's going to adjust to living with two witches. She turned around and hugged me.

"It's been a long time Hermy."

"Oh God don't call me that around Lav. It'll stick." I sighed.

"I'm getting married Herms!" She smiled at me.

"Then why the hell are you living with me?" I exhaled exasperatedly. This made no sense!

"Well in his religion, you can't see your wife for six months before the wedding. Today is exactly six months before the wedding. I said bye to Paris and here I am." She smiled.

"Wow. Well hold on to your bags and grab my arm. Just a warning this may feel a little odd." I said as we apparated.

We landed in the middle of the living room oh so ungracefully. Bags everywhere arms and legs flailing. Adea was screaming as if she was dying.

"Adea SHUT UP!" I screamed back at her.

"What the HELL did we just do?" She screamed her face completely flushed.

"I THINK A BETTER QUESTION IS CAN WE ALL STOP SHOUTING!" Lavender bellowed. "Thank you."

"Adea if you're going to live with me then you are going to have to get used to me doing things magically." I replied irritated.

"Well I could have bloody well had a better warning then this might feel a BIT ODD!" She scrambled up from the floor and duster herself off.

The doorbell rang and I was just about to pull all of my hair out, blonde strand by blonde strand. I know it's stupid to have a doorbell when you're a witch but I've always like them. In my house when I was little we had a really cool one that was long and like the bells when they rang after church. I got one just like that and you can here it all over the house. I exasperatedly threw the door back completely peeved to meet the face of Draco Malfoy. Oh GOD! I DIDN'T NEED THIS NOW! Especially when Adea was here. I barely had time to say a word when I found his lips feverishly over mine. I mentally sighed. For the moment I forgot about Adea and Lavender being there. I didn't care that this was Draco Malfoy, King Asshole. I cared that he was kissing me senseless and I couldn't get enough. I pulled him through the front door and shut it with my foot, our lips not breaking at any point. We maneuvered our way down the hall towards my kitchen. His hands were on my lower back and mine were in his hair. He slammed me against the wall and I momentarily forgot to breathe. His lips were back on mine in an instant. Then I heard this laughing trying to be covered up by coughing. I immediately pulled Draco off of me and pushed as far as I could. He looked at me confused until Lavender bursts into a fit of laughter collapsing to the ground. My chest heaving and my face burning when I turn to look at Adea. She has this thing where she says the most embarrassing things at the most inopportune moments. I watched her mouth open and I heard the words come out.

"Wow, the sex must be great." I just about sunk to the floor and died at the look on Draco's face and then I just bowed my head and slid down the wall trying not to smile, and cry from the embarrassment all at the same time.

A/N So I brought Hermione's sister into the story. I think she adds quite a great touch. I know the whole religion thing is weird. I just kind of made it up. What do you think about Adea? What do you think about this chapter? PLEASE REVIEW!!! Thanks to my reviewers!! )


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